Festival No. 6 returns to North Wales this weekend and among the headliners are the Manic Street Preachers. As they prepare to showcase some of their latest material, Dave Owens speaks to frontman James Dean Bradfield about their new ‘acoustic’ album

It will come as music to the ears of Manic Street Preachers’ fans – the Welsh rock ’n’ roll legends already have in mind their 15th album.

Given that Monday will see the release of their 11th long player, Rewind The Film, you can only applaud their forward planning.

This nugget of information is gleaned when I ask frontman James Dean Bradfield how he will cope with reaching the number that looms large in his future – his 50th birthday.

Admittedly, he’s still only 44, but given that the band’s new album deals with the rigours of middle-age, it seems like a fitting poser.

“I don’t care really. I just hope we can cross some more things off the list. I hope I get to see Cardiff Blues win our league,” says the long-suffering Arms Park season ticket holder. “I hope I can cross that of my list before I get to 50.

“I hope we can manage to record an entire film soundtrack, cross that off the list. I hope I can walk the coast of Wales unbroken before I get to 50, cross that off the list. And I’d like to get to the Manics’ 15th album and cross that off the list. Then I’ll see how I feel when I get to 50.”

It’s two years since the band’ climactic Christmas 2011 concert at the O2 Arena, where they performed all 38 hits from their singles compilation National Treasures during an epic three-hour set.

What’s certain is that these two years away have brought closure to the most recent chapter of their remarkable story, while the new album and a harder-edged Krautrock-inspired release to come next year herald a fascinating new future.

Bradfield confirms the latest collection of songs is unlike anything the band has ever recorded. And visitors to Festival No.6 in Portmeirion this weekend will be among the first to hear the material as the Manics will be headlining on Sunday night.

“There’s only the one track that features an electric guitar and there’s just a solitary guitar solo as well,” he says.

“The new album is much more of an acoustic experience and by that I don’t mean that we’ve been gathered round the campfire.

“We’re not banging on tins and doing a hoedown.”

As a concept, Rewind The Film underlines Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore’s ceaseless adaptability and desire to recalibrate their musical boundaries.

It transpires that Bradfield is quite the fan of Le Bon, the US-based singer who will also be appearing at Festival No.6 this weekend.

“I’ve been aware of all her records,” he says. “And I’m very aware that she can sing with fragility and can sing with a real glassy authority as well. It’s a really amazing range she’s got.

“As for the track she sang on, I knew I couldn’t do it. Even though I’ve got kind of a feminine voice, I haven’t got the right amount of subtlety in my voice.

“Nick writes for the female voice very well, I just knew I couldn’t sing it. Nick did quiet a good job of singing it, but we both had the same idea that we wanted Cate Le Bon to sing it.

Cate Le Bon

“We knew that when we sent the track out to her in LA, we knew the track would come back perfect. It was one of those moments where you know if she said she was going to do it, it’s in the bag. And it was.”

Musically, Rewind The Film brews a quiet storm of melancholic bleakness and folk-inspired beauty, while lyrically it’s as meditative as the title suggests.

Just as Generation Terrorists – reissued to great acclaim last year – encapsulated how it felt to be young and fierce and gloriously unreasonable, this new collection explores the treacherous territory of middle age.

While that hinterland between 40 and 50 forces acceptance and awareness of your own ever-encroaching mortality, it’s worth noting that this is very much not a midlife crisis album.

“There’s no doubt that if you’re still in a band after 10 albums – and we’re now on to our 11th and 12th – then you’re still living the dream,” smiles Bradfield, who will also be performing with the Manics at Newport Centre tonight.

But he cautions: “I’m not saying that in a smug way, I’m saying that realising we’re extremely lucky.

“Knowing that you’re still in a rock ’n’ roll band at the age of 44, some people might view it as being preposterous, but it also gives us a real shot in the arm when we realise the basic reality of our lives and that annuls you from a midlife crisis, hopefully.”

Manic Street Preachers headline Festival No.6 on Sunday while Cate Le Bon will be performing at the festival tomorrow

Festival No.6 - more than just music

When it launched last year, Festival No.6 couldn’t have made more of an immediate impact.

In the intervening 12 months, the music, arts and culture festival set in the stunning surrounds of Clough Williams-Ellis’ magical Portmeirion village has picked up a slew of awards.

Curated and delivered by a team who run events and festivals, including Snowbombing, The Warehouse Project, Lounge on the Farm, Parklife and Beach Break Live, the uniqueness of its location and the diverse quality of its line-up makes for an enticing mix and this year’s event offers similar bragging rights.

Not least the festival’s exclusive headlining appearance of My Bloody Valentine, the seminal early ’90s noise merchants who this year released m b v, their first album in more than two decades.

They’ll be inviting the audience to worship in their sonic cathedral of sound tomorrow night.

While James Blake and the Manics occupy the other headlining slots – Blake tonight and Manics on Sunday – there is strong representation from Wales, including Gruff Rhys side-project Neon Neon, Sweet Baboo, Bright Light Bright Light and Islet performing on the main stages.

However, for the first year, Festival No.6 has introduced the Clough Stage to showcase the best in Wales across the weekend.

Cardiff’s finest new music festival Swn will curate tonight’s line up which includes Geraint Jarman, Yr Ods, Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog and Georgia Ruth.
Georgia Ruth

Saturday night will see Finders Keepers Records’ Andy Votel, the man who brought us the wonderful Welsh Rarebeat albums, curating the likes of Gruff Rhys, Y Niwl and Cate Le Bon among others.

Away from the music and underlining its arts and culture appeal, the festival is stuffed to the gills with the some of the leading names in the worlds of comedy, literature and poetry including Mark Thomas, Seann Walsh, John Cooper Clarke, DBC Pierre, Jan Morris, John Niven and Caitlin Moran.

Festival No.6 runs from tonight until Sunday. For full line-up details and to purchase tickets, visit: www.festivalnumber6.com

Previous Articles

Still striving, still searching and still evolving, the Manic Street Preachers are back with new album Rewind The Film. James Dean Bradfield tells Dave Owens how Wales has shaped their songs, the effects of middle age on the former firebrands and why this new collection is their most emotionally raw yet

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